Doctor's Orders
by Devin Trinidad
Summary: "If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry." The Doctor has to make a pit stop before crashes Amelia Pond's wedding. Meanwhile, a lonely child has only her family and butler to keep her company.


It was just another day in the Wilhern household. The lawn was cut to perfection, the sun was out shining, and the Wilhern blue bloods were enjoying their morning meal. The only thing odd about this daily meal was that the head of the household was dealing with business in London. Jake, the butler was already starting to ring from the amount of yelling that Mrs. Wilhern was radiating. Turns out, little Penelope had brought up the subject of leaving the house to make new friends. Of course, with her disfiguring quality and her need to interact with others, Ms. Wilhern couldn't help but quiver with fear and wariness that her daughter brought up that wretched subject. Penelope, on the other hand, was being very polite, but firm on the matter.

"Mother, I read books about friendships, fairies, and slumber parties! I want to know what is so great about them! Why can't I—"

Dropping her fork on her porcelain plate, Mrs. Wilhern couldn't help but gape openly at her daughter. "Sweetie, you know why can't do that. Your great-great-great-great-great grandfather gave you that—"

"Horrible, disgusting monstrosity," Penelope muttered as she sat with her hands in her lap. Penelope once read that in order to instill orders, she had to look straight ahead into her opponent and talk with great dignity and respect to the other party. Her mother, apparently, had not read the same book and resorted to beating her enemies with her high-pitched fervor. "You told me many times before, mother."

"Oh sweetie," her mother crooned gently. There were noticeable tears in her eyes and the crow's feet from the many years of suspicion and sadness were noticeable. "I didn't say that. You're not your nose, your real self is—"

"Inside of me," the little brunette replied. There was still time before she could give in, before her opportunity to actually meet with other children was lost. "Mother, I think that I need to be outside, smell the flowers and play hopscotch with the other kids. I see them playing outside with a rope and I want to play with them! Can't I, please?" The little girl pleaded. Her great big chocolate brown eyes opened to its widest. There was no face on earth that could have resisted the girl's inviting orbs, but her mother was adamant. With that incident with the paparazzo all that long ago, the cherry blonde patriarch learned that she needed to preserve her daughter's innocence.

"No, Penelope," her mother snapped. She stood up from the table and briskly walked over to her daughter's side of the dining table and knelt down. Gently, her well polished fingers cupped her daughter's chin and lifted it gently so that they could see eye to eye. "You can't just go outside, people are…people will think you're different!" A stern determination entered her mother's facial expressions; thoughts of horror of what the townspeople could do to her burned her retinas.

"But they don't know me," Penelope replied. In her well-sheltered eyes, people only judged for the things that you did wrong. This young girl was far too innocent too realize that people judged on appearance, beliefs, and then actions. "What if-what if they like me?"

Her mother merely shook her head before hugging her tightly and letting her go. Retreating back to her side of the table, her stern countenance from years of evading reporters had returned to full force.

"Dearest, you are not allowed to go outside, and that is final." Her words burned as bright as the sun and they hurt Penelope like she was the poor newspaper reporter. "Now," her mother continued like nothing had happened," let's finish breakfast."

It was mostly silent for the rest of the morning before her daily tutoring began.

* * *

The whoosh of the TARDIS resounded through the man's ears, images of his most recent adventures playing like a black and white film in his brain. (Except, what he witnessed was in HD, with startling colors and used all five of the senses. So, technically, it was not a black and white film.) Startled with his resurrection, the man touched his hands to his face and waited. And waited. And—

"Time's up! Mind you, that is ironic for a Time Lord; we always have spare time. Now, where was I? Ah, yes," the Doctor began as he fished in his pockets, subconsciously making sure that his hands and legs were still working. "Pond, or should I say Ponds," he muttered. If Amy remembered him, then she should be nearby! Spinning around, he face planted into the floor and said hello to his TARDIS' golden desktop. "Hello, sexy! Where in time and space are we?"

As he glanced at his monitor, he noticed slight miscalculations and different readings than the ones during Amy's time. Smiling bemusedly at Amy's mistake, he decided to plug in the new coordinates to get it right.

"You think that I'll finally get to meet Amy's parents?" The bubbling alien asked as he waited for his beloved TARDIS to start his favorite whooshing sound. When he realized that nothing happened, he frowned and pulled out a stethoscope from the pocket of his tweed jacket and pressed it to the console. "Right then, you're going to need some time to recover from this…regeneration of memories," the Doctor. "Since I'm used to regenerations and whatnot, I am perfectly comfortable with transitioning, but you are not. So!" He exclaimed as he put away his stethoscope and pulled out his trusty sonic screwdriver, "Let's see why Mrs. Pond wants us here."

Opening the doors with pseudo bravado, he was greatly pleased and pleasantly surprised that he landed in some gigantic toyshop of sorts. The room was dark green with accents of burgundy. Strewn across the floor, in some type of messy order that only children could ever decipher, were toys, instruments, and books. Chuckling, he picked up a book that lay on its pages and dusted it off.

"Ah, Narnia…the movie was picture perfect, but could do with more chronological viewing." Dusting the book off, he placed it onto a shelf that was nearly empty of all of it's books. "You're quite the reader aren't you…little lady."

A gasp from the covers of a large bed could be heard as the Doctor grinned with triumph. True, he really wanted to get back to the Ponds, but he was having fun!

"How'd you know I was here…mister—"

"I'm the Doctor," he beamed. The old Time Lord appeared to have no qualms with speaking with a sheet that lay curled up in someone's bed. Patiently, he waited for the inevitable 'Doctor Who' question, but was rewarded with something else.

"Hi, Mister Doctor! I'm Penelope Wilhern," the girl replied, as she seemed to burrow deeper into the covers. "Are you my new tutor?"

"Why would you need a tutor? You seem like a nice, brilliant girl!" He shot her a thumbs up as he scanned the room again for something out of the ordinary. Besides the fact that the girl seemed to want to hide form the covers even though there was not dangers irked him, he let it slide. "With the amount you've been reading, I'm willing to guess that you're some type of protégé."

The girl laughed and her dark green covers shifted. The Doctor tried to get a closer look but a pale hand stopped him from advancing.

"That's the nicest thing that anyone has ever told me, Mister Doctor!"

The elderly Time Lord frowned. Now why would that be?

"Really? Glad to be of service." He gave a smug grin and gave a sweeping bow to the young girl. "Although, could you do me the honor of telling me why you like to hide under there? It must be really comfy over there." It reminded him of Amy's bed, except this one seemed to house a whole plethora of alien species if they were to invade this little girl's home.

"Oh, it is! But you can't come over here." Penelope shot back quickly. This caught the Doctor's attention faster than a Weeping Angel can blink. Sorry, that came out wrong…Faster than a human can blink. "You'll see and I don't want you to see."

"See what?" The Doctor didn't want the girl to think that he was being nosy or anything, but if this case involved aliens, he could help her. At the girl's furious efforts of burrowing father into her covers, the Doctor stepped silently over the forgotten toys and knelt by the bed. "Please, Penelope," he murmured low like they were about to be overheard. "What's wrong?"

The covers shook down once again in laughter and the Doctor was more or less confused by the girl's sudden change in personality. What did he say to make her so lighthearted?

"You're talking to my feet," Penelope giggled. "It's not polite to talk to people's feet!"

"I beg your pardon," the Doctor demanded jokingly as he brought himself up to his full height. "That bulk of covers I was kneeling next to obviously the shape of a human skull! It can't be your feet because—"

A pair of Mary Jane's swung from the covers and straight into the passage of the Doctor's nostrils. The girl started laughing again because she thought she had taught him a lesson, but her joviality was quickly gone when she realized something was wrong. Jumping up from the bed, she raced to the Doctor's side and grabbed his lapels.

"What's wrong, Mister Doctor!"

"By Rassilon! You hit harder than Jackie! Honestly, are all females this strong?" This question was certainly said in a halfhearted tone, but the Doctor tried his best to stem the bleeding from his nose. At the girl's worried glance, he simply smiled and tapped her on the nose four times. "I'm going to need a banana, a hankie, and a fez."

Unsure as to why the Mister Doctor needed those items—especially the fez—the girl had no choice but to follow his strange orders. As for the Doctor, he finally realized by what the lovely girl meant by staying under the covers.

* * *

"Are you sure that he provides no harm for you or the rest of the Wilherns," Jake asked kindly. While he was most likely to spurn his mistress' orders and let Penelope go out and play—it was their little secret—this was a concerning issue and Jake would rather not let the Wilherns fail at the curse.

"Of course, Jake!" The girl replied as she held up a tray with a bowl of bananas and box full of family handkerchiefs. Unfortunately, there was no fez, so Penelope opted for a top hat and a cane to make up for her mistake. "He even complimented my taste in reading books and he liked my bed and he-and he—" The girl rambled on and on as the butler looked fondly down at his little mistress. The curse could not inhibit the imagination and purity this little girl had.

"Jake, are you listening to me," the girl whined with a joyful laugh. As the duo walked up the stairs with their items, Jake merely nodded his head and gestured for her to continue. "He actually looked at me and smiled! He wasn't scared or anything!"

"Really now?" The butler smiled at the thought of Penelope gaining a new playmate and opened the door to her bedroom. To both of their surprise, there was no such man to be seen.

"He was here, Jake! I saw him and he was here and he should be—"

"Right over here! And with sweet, delectable bananas!" A strange man in a tweed suit emerged from this…blue box thingy that vaguely looked British. Stumbling over the mess that the girl had failed to pick up, he reached into the bowl and gazed at the yellow fruit lovingly. "I love a good banana. They're so good and filled with potassium too." He pointed the banana at the butler after having bit off a piece and started to mumble again. "Remember, bananas are good for you."

The butler merely nodded before bending down to his mistress.

"I will be down in the kitchen awaiting your parents return should you need me." After receiving a squeeze from the little girl, the man gave a respectful nod to the Doctor, gave him the handkerchiefs, and headed on his way out. Immediately, the girl jumped to the questions that any of his previous companions would have already answered.

"Why do you have a blue box? It's not mine because I would have seen it earlier, but now I do?" Scrunching up her nose to make it seem more pig-like than normal, the alien couldn't help but smile fondly at the sight. In some ways, he was reminded of his granddaughter. Shaking thoughts of reminiscing for a much suitable date, he simply grinned and pointed to the greatest treasure in the universe.

"Chameleon circuit and perception filter; it used to work but it went kaput in the human sixties." His proud tone didn't discourage the girl from looking even more excited than before. The Doctor threw the now empty banana pee over his shoulder and started on another one. At the girl's confused expression, he couldn't help but ask," What?"

"So…you mean recently." It was obvious wasn't it? She _was _living in the midst of the sixties anyways.

"No, I meant in the sixties. Didn't you hear me?"

"It _is_ the sixties." The girl couldn't help but glare at the man's naiveté concerning the current date and year. "Do you not have calendars where you come from?" She didn't seem to be rude, but she oddly knew that this man was not from this world.

Pausing for just a moment, he swallowed the piece of banana he had in his mouth and licked his finger. With a deft motion, he put above his head and stared at the ceiling in deep concentration. Meanwhile, the girl was debating whether she should call him out for being weird or to let him do his thing. However, the Doctor answered her questions beforehand.

"You're right. Which means," he paused for a moment before staring at his TARDIS," I really need to stop skim reading the monitor and actually know if the environment is safe. Oh, and where I come from, we use our innate ability to bond with the time stream to automatically know where in time we are presently located." As an afterthought, he added," I should eat bananas more often. Helps strengthen the bond."

Choosing to ignore his additional comments, she decided to ask a more pressing question. "You…travel in there? In that blue box?"

Unable to resist her cute features and the fact that she was truly interested in his transportation device, he made up his mind to show her around.

"Such a fantastic young mind we have here! You," he grinned broadly as he snapped his fingers," my dear, you are definitely faster than most of my other companions. Most of the time they stand around gaping before inspecting my favorite blue box!" At that precise moment, the doors to the police call box opened, revealing a golden glow coming from the inside.

Rushing away from the Doctor's side, the little girl burst through the entrance and immediately stopped. "So you travel…in this thing?" Craning her neck to see the top of the TARDIS, she felt that she was in a whole other world. Was this feeling of wonderment and enthusiasm the same feelings that Lucy Pevensie felt when she was in Narnia? "I feel like a character in a book."

The Doctor nodded. Obviously, he put two and two together and realized she was comparing herself to the main protagonist in C.S. Lewis' novel. "Of course I do! I would be too bored with one place standing in only one point of time. Where's the fun in all that?" Thinking—or not—he decided to impart some information for her. "Want me to tell you a secret?" The Doctor asked as he stepped inside as well.

Twirling around in fascination at the Doctor's secret, she skipped over to him and nodded shyly. The TARDIS hummed in delight at the presence of a young child, offering an aura of maternal kindness. Good, the Doctor thought. She likes little Penelope. Bending down low, the Doctor whispered into the little girl's ear. While he expected an explosion of wonder, he was astounded by the energy and innocence that the girl exuded.

"Through space…and time," the girl murmured. Taking a few steps from away from the Time Lords, she stared into the ceiling and back to her inviting bedroom. It was then that she realized something. "You're an alien!"

"So are you," the Doctor huffed. "Prettier than most, I admit, but I'm not the only alien out there!" He crossed his arms like and irate child and inwardly smiled as Penelope ran over to him and hugged his middle.

"I didn't mean it like that," she mumbled. "I just didn't expect aliens to be so…" She looked to the older and wiser being in the TARDIS for some word that she could use.

"Kind? Generous? I'm far from that, but I appreciate the sentiment," he turned from her and strode over to his console to see whether his Type 40 TARDIS was ready to leave.

"Exactly that!" The girl agreed as she climbed up the steps and sat on the bench that was provided. She hunched her shoulders in apprehension at her next question, a question that she wasn't sure she wanted answered. "Am I…Did you really think that I was pretty?" While most of her question was spoken in hushed tones, a Time Lord's heightened senses could pick up on her every word and the shivery tone that signified rejection and sorrow.

_"If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."_

Sighing, he turned away from his ministrations and sat down on the floor next to the little heiress' legs.

"Penelope, why would I not think that you're not pretty?" He knelt on one knee, looking the very picture of a knight receiving an order from his queen. "You have intelligence and purity that anyone else would kill for it to be tainted. You have bravery, even though I was a complete stranger." He hugged her, smelling the scent of her hair and the way her body quivered with something akin to joy. "You're lonely," he whispers. "A little girl locked up in her room, with nothing but lies to accompany her all these years. Like a little Rapunzel."

"Lies," Penelope sniffled helplessly. Her tiny hands that were accustomed to playing the piano were now grabbing at his shirt, wanting the warmth of another life form. "What lies?"

The Doctor chuckled coldly, realizing that the girl didn't argue about her lack of independence. He stroked her hair, feeling wet droplets fall askew on his jacket.

"You are beautiful," he intoned seriously as he pulled back from her to see her rosy check face. "That nose," he tapped on her skin," is what makes you special. That's what makes you better than other people."

"B-but mother tells me that my true self was inside of me," the girl pleaded helplessly. It was a classic sign of a mental tug of war going inside her brain. Was she supposed to stay true to her doctrine that her mother drilled into her ever since she could walk and talk, or was she supposed to listen to this strange man who appeared out of nowhere? "She tells me that I'm cursed and only one of my own kind would love me!"

Her own kind, the Doctor thought in confusion.

"You mean, like other humans?" Or did her mother mean pigs? In that case, he was going to have a serious conversation with her parents.

"Mm-hmm," she mumbled. She tried wiping her blotchy skin, but the tears kept on coming. Suddenly, a haze of brown entered her vision. She turned her head to see what was happening and gasped. "No, no I think I have my own tissues…somewhere."

Even so, the Doctor proceeded to gently wipe her face with the cloth from his tweed coat.

"There, much better, eh?" At Penelope's reply of nodding her head, the Doctor helped her up from his bench and lead her to the outside of the TARDIS. He leaned against the door of the wooden police box and stared a little longer at her playroom.

"Any who," the Doctor chuckled slightly at that. "Why don't you show me to your kitchen?"

The girl immediately brightened at the change of conversation and dragged the Doctor towards their destination.

* * *

It was in the middle of the night, the witching hours to be precise. Two gentlemen were in the kitchen, reveling in each other's presence. Electricity seemed to build in the air as the unlikely pair stared each other down. Upstairs, after a full day of being treated to a lesson on alien planets and what to do when a Slitheen, were to apprehend her, Penelope Wilhern lay fast asleep.

"So, tell me Jake, why would a proud Carrionite like yourself lower their social standing to that of a servant?" Whereas the Doctor appeared smiling and positive to the butler before, he was showing that the Oncoming Storm was not taking any trash from the alien.

"Ah, a learned one," Jake mused. With a few whispered words that even the TARDIS couldn't translate, an old withered crone stood in place of the easygoing butler. "What is a Time Lord doing on this decrepit planet? After what you have done to my sisters back in Shakespearean times, I would think that you would try to avoid my kind." Fangs protruded from her mouth, easily displaying that she wasn't going to back down from a fight.

"What should I have done back then? Watch the London skies look like the end of Macbeth? I rather no one die that day," the Doctor mused. "Besides, Jake," the Doctor emphasized the name. "What do you want with Penelope? Why is she important?"

The old crone laughed. Her stringy hair danced around her skinny form and he ragged clothes seemed to emanate an old stench.

"Why should you care Doctor? I'm practically the last of my kind; I just want to have some fun at humankind's expense." While she laughed, her eyes told a different story. It was one that the Doctor was fully familiar with. The loss and heartbreak of a child was written in the way she moved and in the way she spoke. However, it did not stop her from persecuting that poor child.

"No, no," the Doctor chook his head as he exclaimed each part of his sentence. "First of all, you're a Carrionite, which one are you again? Lilith?" At Jake's nod, he continued. "Not sure how you escaped, but so far, I have seen none of your sisters or any attempts to bring them back. The question is why?" The Doctor spun across the room, waving his cane that they provided him earlier to entreat the witch to a show on dramatics. "That ring on your finger. You obviously fell in love with a human and possibly gave birth to a girl, am I right?"

At the witch's simple nod, the Doctor plowed forth.

"Furthermore, you didn't marry the human for a reason. Oh no, you fell in love with him…and the rest of the planet Earth. You grew to love it," the Doctor stopped his erratic pacing and looked Lilith dead in the eye. "And then, the man died…strike one. You loved your little girl do much, you were willing to do anything for her."

The Doctor flipped the top hat on his head and put it on.

"How do I look? Never mind about that! You were poor, you were still confused by the changing ways of society and you wanted to lay low. Your daughter, on the other hand, fell in love with a blue blood…and you encouraged it. You knew that your daughter could have a chance at happiness! Strike two!"

"I would have moved the stars and entire universes to get her to smile," the old crone murmured. The Doctor only nodded sagely, knowing full too well what loss felt like.

"And yet…the blue blood she fell in love refused to marry her and then your little girl killed herself," the Doctor paused and sat down in the kitchen. "And you cursed the family…Strike three."

The Carrionite, not wanting to lower herself to appear vulnerable, stood upright. Her hands lay perfectly still and her mad inhuman eyes stared stonily at the Time Lord.

"No one should suffer like my daughter did."

"Yet, you cursed Penelope out of pure spite."

For once, the most feared wordsmith in all of creation was speechless. She appeared to look like she had lost everything, that her daughter was once again in the arms of death.

"Yes," she breathed out heavily. "Yes, I did." She blinked back tears, trying to retain her dignity before the more powerful being. After she had regained control of her emotions, she walked towards the Doctor and set diagonally from him. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I want you to protect Penelope, she needs to know that while there is bad things about humans, they are ultimately one of the best things in creation. Secondly, I want you to leave this family and to never curse someone again. And third of all," flames of anger appeared in his eyes as he dared not lose control," I want you to lower it."

"Lower what, my dear Time Lord?"

"Lower the price of the curse. I have seen humans out there, the poor and the rich. There is a slim chance that none of those so-called blue bloods could lift the curse." The Doctor abruptly pitched forward so that the heads seemed to mesh together as one. "Penelope, that little girl that has been sheltered all her life, she doesn't love herself."

"I meant one of her own kind. Her opinion doesn't matter."

"Exactly, your daughter's lover never talked to her ever again, did he? She was given no say in the matter, no word of defense in her case. You're doing that to Penelope here. The only way she can establish relationships and actually live her life is to start loving and respecting herself. She doesn't respect herself and she shows no confidence about her body."

"I have no choice in this household. I am only the butler who is to make sure that her kind removes the curse. Her mother is making her do this, why not speak with her?"

The Doctor threw his hands in desperation.

"Because if I do that, I get a repeat of what happened with Jackie Tyler, Martha's mother, and other slap related incidences!" The Doctor shook his head at what he said and groaned. "That's not the point. All I'm saying is that the power to get rid of the curse should be on her own terms, not anyone else's opinions." He brushed his calloused fingers through his hair, agitation rolling off of him in waves. "God, I thought Americans were all about freedom and independence, whatever happened to all their values?"

The elderly woman tapped her chin in a pleasant manner, watching the Doctor look anxiously at her.

"Doctor, all I have ever loved is gone. My sisters, my faithful husband, my foolish little girl…all gone. I have nothing to live for," her stormy grey eyes looked to the Doctor's green orbs, as if seeking the answers of the universe. "Would changing the life of a little girl erase all of my hardships?"

"No," the Doctor conceded," but Penelope has a full life ahead of her. If you're not going to do it for the sake of not being destroyed by my own hands, then at least do it in the memory of your daughter." The tall brunette grabbed the cane that he claimed his own and strode towards the stairwell.

"How do you know that I will do what you ask?"

"Because deep down inside, you love this girl like a mother would do to her child. You in some form helped raise her and you know that you are not going to let her get into any harm's way." With that said and done, the time traveling alien disappeared into the upstairs.

It was true what they said, words can have a deeper meaning and can affect nations, even worlds of sentient beings. No one knew this as well as the Doctor and the aging, lonely Carrionite. And so, as she reverted to her Jake form, the Carrionite whispered her final spell that would impact Penelope's life for the better.

* * *

"Hello, Penelope," the Doctor whispered. He sat near the head of her bed, watching as she cuddled into a cute looking doll. He felt a weird sense of de ja vu doing this, but he didn't care. "Sorry I can't stick around any longer than I have to. Bad things happen if they do."

He rubbed her hair affectionately. "But I bet you knew that, you clever girl." He sighed, all hints of adventurous luster zapped clean from his system. "The reason I came to say goodbye was that…you won't need me. Good ol' Jake is going to make sure that you're going to get rid of that curse. Actually, it's not really a curse; it's a biological imprint of a pig that was to be handed down the Wilhern line. So when it reaches it's target, namely a female, you would bear that genetic code. My old friend, the Rani, could attest to that."

He paused for a second, lost in the memories when he was just a young Time Tot with nothing to do except cause mayhem.

"Her name means queen in Hindu, bet you didn't know that, right? Anyways, one day…you're going to stand up against the world and take it by storm. It's not easy rebelling and going out with a bang, but it's worth every second of exhilaration and the feeling of being liberated!" He calmed down for a second before bending low to her ear. "Love yourself and others will follow. It's okay being different." He gave her a peck on the cheek and stood up from his perched position.

"By the way, I'm stealing your father's tuxedo. Turns out that I'm fresh out of wedding supplies." He swaggered his way off to the TARDIS and away he flew. The whooshing of his TARDIS faded away into nothingness as the girl slept, unaware.

Seconds later, the Doctor flew back in. He marched to her bed and ceremoniously dropped a yellow polka dotted purple scarf.

"You're going to need that, I guarantee it," he declared.

* * *

"I like that scarf you're wearing, kind of retro chic," Annie cooed as she fingered the scarf. "Where'd you get it?"

"Hmm," Penelope mumbled as she stumbled on her third cup of beer. "It was always kind of sitting there, you know? Unused. Forgotten. I never had an opportunity to wear it until now. Doctor's orders and whatnot you know?"

"No," Annie sighed. "I don't know."

"Bad nose jobs for free, remember?" Penelope giggled to herself as Annie groaned.

* * *

**Remember how Amy remembered the Doctor and he was dressed in a nice tux? And remember how he had that crazy scarf as the Fourth Doctor? Yeah...I was wondering where he got it and whether there was a story behind it, so why not do a crossover with Penelope? (I just thought that even though the Doctor might never come back to Penelope's time, she'll have something to remember him by. I apologize for the lack of Mr. Wilhern, Max Campion, and ****that crazy reporter, Rory, Amy, etc. But I hope you guys enjoyed. **

**P.S. Does anyone else think that Penelope looks a little bit like Clara?  
**


End file.
